Arts & Entertainment

Lesbian seeks support for new documentary

Student chronicling effort behind D.C. Women’s Initiative

Published

14 years ago

December 6, 2012

Santiago Melli-Huber

A vintage clipping used in Kelsey Brannan’s in-the-works lesbian documentary. (Image courtesy of Brennan)

A local director is seeking the support of the LGBT community to help her tell a story she’s passionate about.

Georgetown University student Kelsey Brannan and the Washington Blade are hosting a preview of Brannan’s upcoming documentary “Labor of Love” at the Blade offices (1712 14th St., 2nd floor) on Dec. 13 at 7 p.m. Following the 10-minute preview will be a Q&A segment with Brannan and subjects of the film.

Complimentary wine will be served and guests are encouraged to network, socialize and discuss what they would like from a new space.

“Labor of Love” follows the D.C. Women’s Initiative, founded this past March, in its mission to establish a physical space to connect lesbians in the community and existing organizations together. Their goal is to open a space in March. The documentary also includes vignettes highlighting the history of former lesbian spaces in D.C., including Sisterspace and Lammas Bookstore.

In the film, former Lammas Bookstore owner Denise Bump reflects on the impact the store had, saying it was part of a movement of women helping other women. She hopes to see something similar in the new center. Bump is head of the D.C. Women’s Initiative and will be available during the event’s Q&A segment.

The evening is largely a fundraising event. Brannan is attempting to reach a goal of $15,000 by Jan. 1. The funds will go to hiring a full-time editor, composer and cinematographer and cover other production costs. She has raised $2,800 through startsomegood.com. All donations will be canceled if she does not meet the goal by the deadline. While she is confident she will be successful, if she falls short, Brannan said she will explore other outlets of fundraising.

She hopes the event will generate interest in the documentary throughout the lesbian community. In a written statement, Brannan says, “The event is designed to get people more engaged with the project, secure more donors and get feedback from the community about what women want from a new space.”

Brannan estimates that about 40 percent of her filming is complete, thanks to “the generosity of my friends with cameras.” Filming will continue in January and February and the documentary will premiere in late April.

Brannan began developing the film as her master’s thesis project, which she defends in May. When she first arrived in Washington, Brannan searched for a physical space where she and other lesbians could spend time and connect with the community. In a video statement on her film’s website (laboroflovefilm.org), she says she discovered a history of such spaces, which no longer exist, compiled by the Rainbow History Project.

“It’s hard to tap into a community when you move to a new place,” Brannan says, commenting on her early days in D.C. “I wanted to look into the past to see why these spaces existed and why they disappeared.”

This personal desire to find a community became the inspiration for her film.

The project has two components. Brannan plans to expand the documentary and show it at festivals, including the Reel Affirmations Xtra series in June. There is also an archive on the film’s site featuring clips, interview segments and personal stories about the importance of having such spaces for women. Brannan plans for the project to be ongoing.

In the film, D.C. Women’s Initiative member June Crenshaw explains how such a space would fill a void in the community.

“The space is not going take the place of all of the organizations and groups that are out there doing a whole host of wonderful things,” she says, “but it’s really going to provide that centralized place for us to find each other.”

Brannan credits her community as a driving force behind the documentary and appreciates the support she has received. “Every woman I interviewed was a huge part of the project,” she says. “Without them, it wouldn’t be possible, and without the D.C. Women’s Initiative space, I wouldn’t have a narrative.”

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FUND LGBTQ JOURNALISM

Celebrity News

Madonna headlines World Pride Music Festival in Amsterdam

Kylie Minogue made surprise appearance alongside gay icon

Published

9 hours ago

August 2, 2026

Michael K. Lavers

Kylie Minogue with Madonna at the World Pride Music Festival in Amsterdam on Aug. 2, 2026. (Photo courtesy of Cejlon Studio)

AMSTERDAM — Madonna on Sunday headlined the final night of the World Pride Music Festival in Amsterdam.

The gay icon took the stage shortly before 2:30 a.m. local time (8:30 p.m. ET on Saturday) during Club Confessions, a set that MISTR, a telehealth platform that offers free access to PrEP, Doxy PEP, STI testing, and long-term HIV care, organized.

“Mother is here and this is gay heaven,” said Madonna when she took the stage inside Amsterdam’s AFAS Live concert hall that can hold up to 6,000 people.

Stuart Price, who produced Madonna’s 2005 “Confessions on a Dance Floor” album and “Confessions II,” which debuted on July 2, DJed the set.

Kylie Minogue made a surprise appearance. She and Madonna performed a new remix of “Love Sensation” from “Confessions II.”

(Washington Blade video by Michael K. Lavers)

“Throughout my career, I’ve always supported efforts to fight HIV and AIDS, and that fight begins with education and access,” said Madonna in a MISTR press release. “With MISTR, (CEO) Tristan (Schukraft) is expanding access to HIV prevention and sexual healthcare for everyone. Through this work, he’s helping preserve and strengthen LGBTQ+ spaces while investing in the communities and culture that have long sustained us.”

Minogue in an Instagram post thanked Madonna, Price, Schukraft, and MISTR.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kylie Minogue (@kylieminogue)

Madonna appeared at The Abbey in West Hollywood, Calif., in April. Madonna in June celebrated Pride month with a pop-up performance in New York’s Times Square.

Jake Resnicow and Insomniac produced the World Pride Music Festival that also featured Bebe Rexha and Paris Hilton, among others.

“Pride has always been about bringing our community together,” said Resnicow. “At a moment when too many people are being told to hide or make themselves smaller, gathering openly, joyfully, and without apology matters more than ever. I couldn’t be prouder of what this festival brought to life in Amsterdam — one dance floor, completely free.”

Theater

Reggie White relishing first season as artistic director of Woolly Mammoth

First five shows a reminder that ‘pressure is a privilege’

Published

18 hours ago

August 2, 2026

Patrick Folliard

Reggie D. White (Photo by Ambe J. Williams)

Madly talented and preternaturally energetic, Reggie D. White, 38, is about to launch his first season as artistic director of D.C.’s boundary-pushing Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company.

White brings a lot to the job. As actor, playwright, and director, his varied resume includes a 2019 Broadway acting debut in Matthew López’s Tony Award–winning play “The Inheritance,” his semi-autobiographic play “Fremont Ave.” that opened to acclaim last season at Arena Stage, and a number of exciting regional directing credits.

A longtime admirer of Woolly, the out theater-maker was selected from a pool of candidates before receiving the offer last November and starting work in January. His season of five world premieres kicks off with gay playwright Steve Yockey’s “Venus” (Sept. 9-Oct. 4), a darkly funny study of modern relationships told through two lesbians looking back on their first encounter.

White was introduced to Woolly Mammoth as a pre-law student at Cal State Hayward in the San Francisco Bay Area, long before he foresaw a life in the arts. “As part of a random theater history course, I was assigned to write a paper on a counterculture company called Woolly Mammoth,” he recalls “Strange name. I was like what the hell is that?”

Nineteen-year-old White was intrigued. Research acquainted him with Howard Shalwitz who co-founded Woolly in 1980, and the company’s commitment to living playwrights and new work. He also learned how theater could be used as a tool for difficult conversations and shape the way people thought about social issues by employing imagination and rigor.

“Never in a million years did young me envision that one day I’d be Woolly’s third artistic director in its 46-year history,” says White. “It’s kind of serendipitously insane.”

WASHINGTON BLADE: Was there a moment when the enormity of the job hit you?

REGGIE D. WHITE: After I’d signed my contract and finished all the paperwork, I got my keys and sat in the theater by myself in the dark and thought about what an incredible honor it is to be trusted with what happens in this beautiful space [in D.C.’s Penn Quarter]. I might have cried. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to remember it’s real.

BLADE: Are you curating the upcoming 2026–2027 season?

WHITE: Yes, I am. It’s very rare that an incoming artistic director gets to program their first season, but I was lucky in terms of time. After being hired late last year, I asked Woolly’s managing director Kimberly E. Douglas, if she thought it would be crazy if I programmed the season. She warned me it would be hard.

I invoked tennis legend Billie Jean King’s maxim “pressure is a privilege” and got to work.

These plays [dubbed White’s “first five”] represent both the kind of theater that Woolly can do really well and speak directly to my voice as curator and how I want to contribute to the larger theatrical conversation in the DMV.

Getting here has meant a lot of late nights. But I knew the juice would be worth the squeeze.

BLADE: As a queer artistic director, what makes you unique?

WHITE: When I was playing in “Inheritance” on Broadway, after a performance, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sotomayer came backstage to meet the cast. She spoke about how her lens on the world as a Puerto Rican woman shapes her decisions. Similarly, because I’m a queer Black man I see through a lens that shapes my work.

I know I’m not the only queer artistic director in town. For me, it influences how I make editorial decisions. Out of this season’s five plays there are explicitly queer characters in four [“Venus,” “Chanukkah Spectacular,” “Ten Grand,” and “Love I Awethu Further”] and I’m directing two [“Venus,” “Ten Grand”].

BLADE: Will we see familiar faces?

WHITE: Every show this season will feature a Woolly Mammoth company member in its cast. Our company also includes designers and directors who we’ll include. I’m invested in continuing to provide a showcase for their work.

BLADE: How do you think queer audiences will receive the season?

WHITE: Very well, I think. For queer people who’ve had to navigate the world subversively and solve problems in unique ways, I think it will be especially interesting. I find theater a potent place for questions.

Like all artistic directors. I’ll show up for the job in my own way. I’m just excited that I’ve been invited to bring the fullness of myself to the role.